Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Saab Bankruptcy - Is this the End?

My friend Fred at work loved his Saab. He says he liked the "Quirkiness" factor. You have to admit that Saab has not been mainstream, although after two decades of ownership by General Motors most of its "Saabness" was filtered out. And, sadly, GM never managed to make the brand profitable.

Saab was shed by GM in its own bankruptcy proceedings two years ago and it looked like the end then. But Spyker, a small Danish specialty sportcar manufacturer, bought the brand. Almost immediately, they saw what they were facing and started looking for help. After selling their original sportcar business and renaming themselves Saab, they went looking for money from Chinese manufacturers, much in the way that the other Swedish brand, Volvo, was saved through a sale to Geely by Ford.

In any case, sales volumes have been slim, consumer confidence is surely low, and what's going to happen to Saab is anyone's guess.

I've driven a few Saabs over the years and they were fun, especially the turbo convertibles. My experience is not with the older, "original" cars however, so we'll have to trust Fred on that one.

Read more about Saab's history here. The latest information on the new models is better found at the manufacturer's website. I've linked to the U.S. models, but Saabs are available worldwide--at least for now.